Our Month in Australia – Part 1

Long Time Planning

Planned further in advance than any trip in memory, our return to Australia started almost two years ago. I remember it all like it was yesterday. It was in May of 2023 when I made a promise to my cousin to soon make a return trip back to Australia. In reality, we would have eventually gotten around to getting there, but this conversation definitely moved it up higher on the list.

Travel Fatigue Ahead

As I often do, I’m posting the first part of this series from the airport in Vancouver. For the 12th time (I had to research this number), we’re travelling with Peter and Liz, who are with us at the airport. The four of us travelled to Australia for the first time back in 2011, with Dad with us on that first trip, and all have talked about returning again over the years.

We’re all in the process of mentally preparing ourselves for the long and arduous flight to Sydney, Australia. Without a doubt, this will be the longest direct flight we’ve ever taken out of Vancouver, estimated to be close to 16 hours. Considering the extremely long duration and the time zone change, we’ll do our best to get some sleep to try and avoid arriving in Australia a complete mess.

Extreme Weather

In the past few days, we’ve been tracking cyclone Alfred, which will hit land around the same time when our flight arrives in Sydney. We’re not sure if our flight out of Vancouver will be delayed or if it will take a longer route to Sydney to go around the weather. We’re starting our Month in Australia very far away from the cyclone, but in several weeks, we will end our trip in that part of the country. More details to come.

Reminiscing

Throughout the whole travel planning process for this trip, I’ve reminisced about our first time we travelled to Australia in 2011 and the photos from that trip. There are a few common destinations that we have in the weeks ahead that overlap with our 2011 trip, but in most every way, there are big differences, specifically no camping in the outback as we did last time.

I look forward to updating everyone when we finally reach our next destination.

Baden